From the Bride... Austin and I met three years ago in Miami, Florida, but from the moment we met it seemed like we were destined to be together.

Even though our families live in different states on the east coast, we decided to host our wedding in Malibu since we now live in Los Angeles. We joke that it was a destination wedding for everyone except for us. The most important thing for our wedding was that everything have meaning. For us that meant having a small wedding and incorporating details that celebrated our love and heritage.

We started by choosing a location that we felt encompassed the magic and romance of our relationship. We were looking for an outdoor venue that overlooked the ocean – one of our favorite things. In fact, much of our first date was spent on the beach right by the ocean and we also got engaged on the water. Rancho del Cielo was the first venue we looked at and we instantly fell in love. Not only was it owned by two of the nicest people we have ever met, but it also felt like a magical garden filled with lush blooms that overlooked the ocean. Once that was in place we worked hard to surround ourselves with an amazing group of vendors. Our goal was to find genuinely good people who loved their job and were in love with love! Then it was on to finding ways to incorporate meaning into our wedding through planning the details.

For our first dance we danced to a song written and performed by Austin and his band, The Colonized, about our relationship. We also made sure to provide just a few copies of the lyrics at each table in case our guests wanted to read them. We also incorporated the song into the ceremony by having Millie’s mom and grandmother sew together a runner and having Jessa at Flax and Wool Designs calligraphy the lyrics of the song onto the runner.

Other details included having a table with wedding pictures and portraits of our grandparents and parents, some of whom are no longer with us. Finally, we incorporated our heritage (Cuban, Ecuadorian, and American) by having favors that represented each country: balsa wood pens made in Ecuador, dominos, which are a favorite Cuban pastime, and popcorn representing the cornhusker state of Nebraska.